[B-Greek] Luke 12:4 PERISSOTERON TI
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Sep 19 06:14:31 EDT 2003
At 3:30 PM +0700 9/19/03, james Pantou wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>Greetings. My name is James Pantou from Indonesia. I have been a lurker (yet
>an eager learner) for a year now, and now its time for me to ask my first
>question (If Jonathan Robie called himself a "little greek", then I will be
>a much much smaller greek :) ). So, here goes a question from one of the
>much much smaller greek.
>
>My question is about Luke 12:4
>
>LEGW DE hUMIN TOIS FILOIS MOU, MH FOBHQHTE APO TWN APOKTEINONTWN TO SWMA KAI
>META TAUTA MH ECONTWN PERISSOTERON TI POIHSAI
>
>Can my teachers here explain to me to which verb the phrase PERISSOTERON TI
>is connected to? (I understand that both the comparative adjective
>PERISSOTERON and the indefinite adjective TI have the accusative case) Is it
>the participle ECONTWN or the infinitive POIHSAI that has TI PERISSOTERON as
>it's object? If the participle, is it simply because of the word order or is
>there some other grammatical rules that can explain the meaning of the
>clause META TAUTA MH ECONTWN PERISSOTERON TI POIHSAI?
>My impression from the translations I've read is to translate the clause as
>"... after those things having nothing more to do" and not "... not having
>to do anything more." Perhaps these mean the same, but why the first and not
>the last? I feel there's still something more that I have to learn regarding
>the construction of this clause. Thank you for shedding the light for me
>regarding this.
Welcome to the list, James Pantou, and you certainly need not hesitate to
pose any question related to the Biblical Greek text or to the Biblical
Greek language.
There is an idiomatic use of the verb ECW in the passage about which you
ask: ECW with a following infinitive may mean "can, be able' and is quite
commonly used that way in ancient Greek from the time of Homer onwards;
that being the case, we should understand PERISSOTERON TI in the passage in
question as the direct object of POIHSAI. Here's definition #5 under ECW:
in BDAG:
5. be in a position to do someth., can, be able, ECW. w. inf. foll.
(Hom. et al.; cp. Eur., Hec. 761; Hdt. 1, 49; Pla., Phd. p. 76d; Demosth.,
Ep. 2, 22; Theocr. 10, 37 TON TROPON OUK ECW EIPEIN=I cannot specify the
manner; Lucian, Dial. Mort. 21, 2, Hermot. 55; Epict. 1, 9, 32; 2, 2, 24
al.; Ael. Aristid. 51, 50 K.=27 p. 546 D.: OUK ECW LEGEIN; PPetr II, 12, 1,
16; PAmh 131, 15; Pr 3:27; ApcEsdr 2:24; 3:7; 6:5; TestAbr A 8, p. 86, 13
[Stone p. 20]; Jos., Ant. 1, 338; 2, 58; Just., A I, 19, 5, D. 4, 6 OUK ECW
EIPEIN) ECW APODOUNAI be able to pay Mt 18:25a; Lk 7:42; 14:14. MH ECONTWN
PERISSOTERON TI POIHSAI be in a position to do nothing more 12:4. OUDEN
ECEIN ANTEIPEIN be able to make a reply Ac 4:14; cp. Tit 2:8. hINA ECWSIN
KATHGOREIN AUTOU v J 8:6 (cp. 9a below, end). ASFALES TI GRAYAI OUK ECW I
have nothing definite to write Ac 25:26a; cp. 26b. hINA ECHi METADIDONAI
Eph 4:28a. ECEIN THN TOUTWN MNHMHN POIEISQAI be able to recall these things
to mind 2 Pt 1:15. KAT' OUDENOS EICEN MEIZONOS OMOSAI he could swear by no
one greater Hb 6:13. In the same sense without the actual addition of the
inf., which is automatically supplied fr. context (X., An. 2, 1, 9) hO ESCE
(i.e. POIHSAI) EPOIHSEN she has done what she could Mk 14:8.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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